astern Oregon remains the wild side of the state from the Blue, Elk Horn, and Wallowa mountains in the northeast to Steens Mountain and the Alvord Desert in the southeast. Members of Eastern Oregon Outfitters and Guides Association operate in and around the mountains in the northeast.

Northeastern Oregon gives anyone looking for wilderness adventure everything from climbing and hiking in the granite peaks of the Wallowa Mountains to white water rafting in Hells Canyon to some of the finest big game hunting on the continent. The Wallowa Mountains hold Oregon's largest designated wilderness area, Eagle Cap Wilderness, which alone gives rise to five National Wild and Scenic Rivers.

The Wallowa Mountain peaks and ridges consist of volcanic and sedimentary rocks that later included granite. During the Ice Age, nine large glaciers, each more than ten miles long, cut through the Wallowas. The long, narrow rivers of ice formed the deep valleys typical of the Wallowas, and shaped the sharp ridges and pyramid peaks.

Today the range has seventeen summits over 9000 feet in elevation with the tallest named after the Sacajawea, the famed guide for the Lewis and Clark expedition. Sacajawea, Matterhorn, and many other 9000+ summits offer some of the best technical and nontechnical climbing in Oregon. And you'll also find hundreds of miles of trails throughout this magnificant high country.

But the Wallowas and Eagle Cap Wilderness are only half the story, the half that borders the deepest gorge in North America, some 2000 feet deeper than the Grand Canyon. Hells Canyon was formed by the Snake River, one of the West's great rivers that flows from Yellowstone National Park across Idaho, then north to cut the 7000-foot-deep boundary between Idaho and Oregon before it joins that other great river of the West, the mightly Columbia.

To the north on the Oregon-Washington state boundary lies the Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness, a maze of deep, sheer-walled canyons, according to Forest Service description, that cut into what was once plateau on the north side of the Blue Mountains. The plateau eroded into long ridge tops and wide, forest-covered mesas that now stand as much as 2,000 feet above streams and rivers. Much of the area's water runs south into Oregon's Wild and Scenic Wenaha River, although some of it flows north into Washington's Tucannon River. Like the other wilderness areas, the permanent residents of Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness include elk, mule deer, white-tailed deer, black bear, coyote, cougar, bobcat, and the elusive big horn sheep. Humans only visit.

The members of the Eastern Oregon Outfitters and Guides Association know this country better than anyone on Earth. They can take you for a visit to places you will never forget.